State‐Led Innovation at the City Level: Policy Measures to Promote New Energy Vehicles in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Unlike many Western countries, the Chinese state has a much more active role in innovation that includes direct involvement with actors in innovation processes and the use of state capacity, money, and power to attain certain goals. With the rise of China, innovation processes that critically depend on state action, often labeled state‐led innovation, have thus received growing scholarly attention. However, only few contributions study the specific sector of new energy vehicles () and policy measures applied at the city level. This paper examines policy and planning tools used in Shenzhen, China, to assert innovation in the industry, using an evaluation of documents and interviews. The paper finds that a city can play a decisive role in the implementation of innovation policy, and Chinese cities in particular make use of a broad set of innovation support measures ranging from binding quotas, public procurement, and incentives to bans and orders. The findings underline the importance of strong regulatory instruments that do not conform to the Western notion of market‐compliant policy, but nevertheless work effectively in the Chinese context. Moreover, the results highlight how successful policy support for innovation in the can be implemented.

Key words:

• innovation
• innovation policy
• planning
• new energy vehicles
• Shenzhen

This article reports findings from the research project “Sino‐German Electromobility Research (SINGER)”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) under funding number 03EM0204B. The authors wish to thank Stephan Pohl, Hannover, for cartography and artwork, as well as three anonymous reviewers and the editor for providing comments and suggestions that helped to improve the paper.

This article reports findings from the research project “Sino‐German Electromobility Research (SINGER)”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) under funding number 03EM0204B. The authors wish to thank Stephan Pohl, Hannover, for cartography and artwork, as well as three anonymous reviewers and the editor for providing comments and suggestions that helped to improve the paper.

Notes

This article reports findings from the research project “Sino‐German Electromobility Research (SINGER)”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) under funding number 03EM0204B. The authors wish to thank Stephan Pohl, Hannover, for cartography and artwork, as well as three anonymous reviewers and the editor for providing comments and suggestions that helped to improve the paper.

1. In the Chinese context, the term New Energy Vehicle (NEV) is more prominent than the term electrical vehicle (EV). According to the Shenzhen Municipal Government (2015), the promoted NEVs include pure electrical vehicles, plug‐in hybrid electric vehicles (including extended‐range electric vehicles) and fuel cell vehicles.

2. According to Liu and others (2011), political documents in the field of China's innovation enjoy a different status that usually corresponds to the level and authority of the issuing bodies. Concepts developed and issued at the municipal level are of an inferior legal status compared to high‐level documents (办法, 规定, or 通知). In reality, however, guidelines or concepts issued by the governments of large and important cities have a strong impact on party cadres, government officials and companies (Lauer 2017; cp. Liefner and others 2016).

3. „Qianhai“ is a new district in Shenzhen that enjoys superior administrative flexibility. It is to be viewed as a model district of an environmentally friendly city (see below).

Additional information

Funding

German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI)

Notes on contributors

Johannes Lauer

Dr. Johannes Lauer was a researcher at the “Environmentally Sound Urban and Infrastructure Planning” Working‐Group at HafenCity University Hamburg. Now he is a research consultant for Intelligent Transport Systems at Hamburger Hochbahn AG; [[email protected]].

Ingo Liefner

Dr. Ingo Liefner, the corresponding author, is a professor of economic geography at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany; [[email protected]].